Monday, February 2, 2009

Where does the time go?

Being Fly: 12 weeks

Being adorable: 10 weeks

My munchkin is 3 months old officially! And yes, he still lives with his parents.

The last month has been ridiculously busy, so I've not had a free moment to sit and blog about Life with Benny. Living with an infant, Benny specifically, has been so incredible. He makes me laugh every day and is such a fun, bite-sized companion. Who knew that a discussion on what sound different animals make would be so entertaining? Grammy introduced this game to Benny where he is asked "What sound does the *insert animal here* make?" followed by a goofy impression of that animal's sound. He is partial to the kitty-cat's "meeeeeeooooooow" but enjoys them all pretty well. He laughs hysterically - the kind of laugh where he gasps for air because it was just that funny.

Mama went back to work on January 12th, and is taking it much harder than Ben is. He has gone with the flow and smiles his silly smile when we put him in the carseat in the morning. I think he knows that it means Gram isn't far away and he is about to have a pretty fun day. When I put him in the carseat in the evenings, he does not flash the same grin, but rather, fusses a little bit like "Do I have to go, Ma?!" I am finding it difficult to focus on work during the day and have a new and amazing ability to work the topic of Ben into any conversation. I miss him lots, but we have the evenings and weekends to play and we definitely make the most of that time.

Benny at 11 weeks: getting ready to go to Gram's

This month, he's magically changed from a 10 pound ball of newborn human to a little guy with a very distinctive personality. Benny is entertained by everything. He laughs at everything, and likes to chat about it. He talks constantly, and will raise his voice if you raise yours. What he has to say is much more important than anything you could think of. He is now sleeping through the night, with a midnight snack on the schedule every now and then (just to keep us on our toes), and is hilarious at bedtime. Once he is swaddled and put into bed, he feels compelled to continue chatting to whoever will listen. Most often, this is his teddy bear.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

He is also an escape artist. In the last shot, he is wearing a special swaddler, called Snug-Tug. It's supposed to be Houdini-proof. Guess what?

It's not. Notice the mildly amused look on his face. We let him sleep with one hand out every night, just like that, because if we tucked it back in, he'd just work hard on poking it back out again. We're learning to choose our battles.

He loves traveling and has taken to checking things out while he's out and about. He really loves the Baby Bjorn carrier and watches people and things around him. He's no longer satisfied with being carted around in his infant carrier - he wants to look around and flirt with strangers.

We've gotten a few different items to keep him busy over the last month. He's gotten an activity mat, which entertained him lots during a play date with Levi, and is very funny in his opinion. He'll lay there and look up at the toys and bat at them every now and then. He can't quite grab them yet, but it's coming.

Playdate: 12 weeks

At Target, Benny tried out some exersaucers and somehow conned us into buying the most elaborate (read: expensive) one they had. We let him try it out at the store and he LOVED it!

How could we deny this face anyway?

At home, playing Air Traffic Controller:

We brought it home and observed as he hit the light-up buttons with a purpose. It was the first time we noticed Benny engage in cause-and-effect behavior in an intentional manner. Watching this made me so proud of my smart boy!

So January has been very eventful and lots of fun. My little newborn is now a little boy and is getting more and more entertaining and fun to be around every day!